La Samanna is a hotel on Saint Martin remembered in Andy Warhol’s diary as the setting for a beautiful, carefully observed stay that also became the backdrop to friction among his companions. The diary moves from the resort’s blue-and-white elegance and grand meals to the incongruous discovery of flowers taped onto its bushes, before recording an argument at Villa M.

Arrival and setting

On April 14, 1983, Warhol arrived by cab, a ride recorded as costing $10, and checked in at Hotel La Samanna. He shared a house called Villa M with Jon Gould, Chris Makos, and another companion. The group ordered piña coladas, while Warhol applied sunblock and kept it on throughout the stay. The first evening’s dinner at the hotel, overlooking a balcony, cost $214.45 and struck him as grand. He also noted a small shift in perspective: newcomers initially felt like tourists, but once other guests arrived, they felt like veterans.

Beauty and observation

Warhol called the following day “The most beautiful day in the world” and photographed all day. His praise for the place was emphatic: it seemed to him the most beautiful place ever, its defining colors blue and white. The diary’s attention to appearance also catches a comic discrepancy. Outside, the bushes seemed to carry beautiful red flowers; on closer inspection, the flowers were real but had been taped onto the branches. The resort’s cultivated visual charm thus included both genuine beauty and an unmistakable piece of staging.

Villa M and the stay’s tension

The villa was not only a place to stay but the setting for a conflict. On April 17, an argument between Jon Gould and Chris Makos ended with Jon shouting that he could take Chris’s job, meaning he could turn Warhol against him with a snap of his fingers. The outburst made everyone feel awkward. Set against the earlier image of a luxurious shared holiday, the confrontation gives La Samanna’s diary appearance a social edge: the resort’s beauty frames, but does not resolve, the tensions among the people staying there.